No Regerts*

When you're a Mage, you don't have to wait for Summer to enjoy some sun and relaxation.

Time to conjure up another frosty drink.

While Cardwyn has been enjoying some fun in the sun, I've been contemplating what to do with her. Originally, my plan was to see how high her leveling in the Old World could go before I run into practical limits --and I still want to see how that'll work out-- but I'd rather not just grind mobs all day for fun and (dubious) profit. Like maybe work on a mount or something.

Or at least finish some quests out there that I'd originally skipped on her while getting to L60. 

One thing about TBC Classic is that you don't gain access to new spells until you go to Outland, so my refusal to take Card through the Dark Portal means that I'm invoking "hard mode" back in the Old World. Sure, I get more mana and more health, but I don't get anything else along the way. It's more of an annoyance than anything else at this point, but every time I run into that limitation it gets me annoyed enough to say "Okay, fine. I'll do it my way, and I'm gonna like it!"**

Kind of like how every time somebody asks when I'm going to level Card in Outland, it reinforces my decision to be obstinate.

Or go play Neve more.

Speaking of whom...

I like how Melisara thinks. Very Orc-like.
But don't tell her I said that.

Having access to teleports all over the place makes Neve's questing a lot easier than Briganaa's ever was. I'd forgotten how nice it is to just pop over to wherever and then have a much shorter flight to the zone you needed to be. If anything, she leveled so quickly that I had to go back and work on leveling tailoring so I could gain access to useful patterns for her. 

I have been keeping an eye open for instances, but like the LFG channel on the Alliance side, there's not a lot out there that's not strictly for Outland. Or the occasional boost.

And yes, boosting does go on, based on the requests for SM and ZF boosts. I guess that could get me some gear, but you also must have gold to get boosted, and with Neve's perpetual poverty that's where some crafting and farming come into play.

But I'm also not in any particular hurry to get Neve to Outland, as I'm enjoying seeing the Old World quests from the Horde side for a change. It also gives me a welcome respite from having to think about anything Black Temple or Hyjal related.

Believe me, I'm not missing having to get ready for those raids. My gear is still subpar, but even if I do get into a raid this coming Monday*** I'm not planning on bidding on any gear. It should go to people who are continuing in progression, not me.

There was a request in our guild Discord for a run in Heroic Mana Tombs to get the DPS totem for a Shaman, and the people involved wondered if I wanted the totem too.

"No thanks," I replied. "It's no longer a priority for me, so go for it yourself."

And after I typed that, this was my reaction:

No, I wasn't eating sand, but...

Or maybe it was this:

"The hills are alive..."

No worries about being an example for people, or being judged for gear (or lack thereof), or getting judged for my commitment to the raid, or anyone of a half dozen things that would float through my head and just get me depressed about the situation I found myself in.

***

Stepping back now, I can see that my feelings about progression raiding actually have been haunting me for longer than I cared to admit. 

All of the farming for mats to make the consumables that went on for the entire time we spent in Naxxramas wore on me to the point where I'd not login on Card unless I absolutely had to. Since most of my farming was done on Azshandra, I could hide from people. Well, since I wasn't in Valhalla at the time, that little fact made my life easier too, but looking back on it everything was about the raid****, and nothing about what enjoyment I got out of playing WoW. Trying to keep my raiding life separate from my non-raiding life was becoming more and more difficult, and I can now see why some people left the raid back then. TBC Classic and the meta only accelerated some aspects of the turnover to where it was blatantly noticeable to even me. 

But still, despite the stress I did have some fun times.

No regrets? Nah. I have regrets. I just can't let them tie me down.

*Intentionally misspelled. It's based off of this commercial for Milky Way:

**Stubborn Midwesterners and all that.

***It's looking more likely for the Vashj kill, as one raider still needs it and another raider had already gone into SSC this week thinking that we weren't going to SSC this Monday. So I'll likely drop in for the Vashj portion of the raid, after everybody else is finished working on Kael'Thas.

****And a significant portion of that was devoted to people trying to recruit me into Valhalla.